


We Bonded over Twilight

by TokkiDdalgi



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Fluff, Vampires, finally learned how to create custom tags, jeongyeon among other members aside from saidahmo are vampires, nayeon is a professor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:14:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26987311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TokkiDdalgi/pseuds/TokkiDdalgi
Summary: Jeongyeon is a cool vampire and Nayeon have an intoxicatingly sweet smell
Relationships: Im Nayeon/Yoo Jeongyeon, Kim Dahyun/Minatozaki Sana, Myoui Mina/Son Chaeyoung, Side Michaeng - Relationship, Squint for Saida - Relationship
Comments: 15
Kudos: 104





	We Bonded over Twilight

**Author's Note:**

> This is the longest fanfic I have ever written whoooooo! It took me almost a year writing this, not because of this is well-written nor well-researched but because I'm just a lazy person.
> 
> Edited? Nah, I'm sorry.
> 
> Vampire cliche, but I hope you enjoyed.

Jeongyeon loves to read. Actually, it was her who influenced Dahyun, the well-known writer and book-enthusiast, on becoming a bookworm. In her home, she has this enormous library containing thousands and thousands of scribes and books ranging from those written from ancient times to the books published just a week ago. It is bizarre for a very young-looking woman like Jeongyeon to own an extensive collection of rare books. It isn’t impossible but let’s admit it will be very weird. Well, the real reason why Jeongyeon owns valuable books and loves reading dearly was because of her secret that is old as the oldest book in her shelves. She is a vampire who is so bored in her hundreds of years living here that she spends most of her time reading.

Yes, our main character is an undead creature roaming Earth for centuries but that doesn’t stop her from dressing up like an emo teenager clad in all black from head to toe even though her destination is a local bookstore to buy Dahyun’s latest novel. Jeongyeon made her way to the shelf of newly-released books, easily finding “Like A Submarine in the Ocean” and grabbed a copy. She’s on her way to the counter when a very sweet scent tickled her nose.

Jeongyeon hates how mainstream media often romanticizes vampires but she can’t argue that out of many lies fiction books and films put into the picture, they captured perfectly that vampires’ sense of smell is impressive. They can smell preys over miles away and can distinguish one’s smell from the other (all humans and vampires have distinct individual smell).

But, this is the very first time in Jeongyeon’s life that a human scent made her turn her head. It was intoxicatingly sweet and it made her parched all of a sudden. It was a very very very bad situation. Jeongyeon swallowed hard and with all her might, reached for her leather jacket’s inner pocket. It will be her life-saver. She brought the small bottle in her lips and had a hungry sip.

Aaah, the taste of blood is always refreshing and flavorful.

Thanks for her emergency blood supply and she managed to control her cravings.

She already quenched her untimely thirst but the smell is still lingering there, enticing her to find its source. Resembling a predator, she carefully traced the scent like it was footprints to be followed. Jeongyeon meandered around shelves of unsold books, turning to her left and right as she felt the scent’s source move. She reached the end of the shelf containing best-selling books of the previous years. There she found a girl, crouching down with a book in her remarkably big hands. This girl seems to be reading the book’s synopsis but Jeongyeon know how the book’s story goes. She can’t help releasing a low snicker.

The girl turned to her with wide eyes full of curiosity and Jeongyeon’s breath hitched because of that.

Ohh this girl is gorgeous huh, endearing eyes, a mole hiding in her right eyebrow, pointy nose, chubby cheeks and is that a cute bunny teeth peeking between her slightly open heart-shaped lips?

“Mmmm, excuse me? Why are you staring, Miss?”

And that was time Jeongyeon knew she fucked up.

“Ahh sorry about the book you are holding…”

Great Jeongyeon! Just great!

“Oh, ‘Twilight,’ for sure you know this. I always wanted to read this since I watched all the movie.”

Here it goes Jeongyeon’s signature mocking laugh. Her friends know too well what that laughter means: she must have heard something foolish for that laughter to come out. This girl might be the most beautiful girl Jeongyeon have ever seen but the girl was pretty stupid for her type.

“Hey, what’s wrong with ‘Twilight?’” The girl finally stood up and it turns out she is a little shorter than Jeongyeon.

“That book is really stupid! A handsome vampire that dazzles under the sunlight? They don’t spark under any type of light AND they don’t also burn because it was Sto- “

Jeongyeon stopped herself from blabbering vampire facts when she noticed the girl inching towards her.

Her scent.  
Her scent.  
Her scent.

“Are you a vampire?” The girls spoke in a hushed voice like she was afraid others will hear them.

“N-no! Of course not! Vampires are not real!” Jeongyeon didn’t understand why she stuttered. This is not the first time she was questioned of being one so why did she stuttered?

“You’re not a vampire, you’ll never know! So why call the book stupid?” The girl smirked, knowing that she won the argument.

“Nayeon,” the girl offered her hand for a hand shake.

“Jeongyeon,” she gladly accepted.

“Your hand is cold.” Nayeon slightly tightens her hand. The vampire flinched and pulled her hand out of the human’s hold.

“Uhmm, yeah, it’s always that way. I have really cold hands.” She lied.

Nayeon eyed her and she immediately avoided her gaze to the fear of the girl can read her mind. She observed how Nayeon stopped studying her to search something in her bag. After sometime, Nayeon took out a small business card and handed it to her.

“I actually own a community library open for everyone, 24/7. Maybe you can swing by and let’s discuss about books. I can feel that you love reading.”

Jeongyeon took the card and stare at it for a while. Nayeon bid her goodbye. She watched the human girl’s back until the girl disappeared from her view and minutes later, Nayeon’s sweet smell slowly fades until she can smell it no more.

Jeongyeon loves to think. She owns massive sets of Lego and puzzles that kept her mind working most if the time. If she’s not reading in her library, you will find her in her room, stacking blocks of Lego or connecting puzzles together. When doing Legos or puzzles, it exercises her logical thinking.

Our character is known for her logical thinking. She will not manage to be the leader of their vampire family for hundreds of years if she’s not clever and wise enough, she just resigned decades ago because of extreme boredom doing the same job for a very long long long time.

So it is a surprise that Jeongyeon is standing in front of Nayeon’s library. Logically, she should stay away as far as possible from the human. Nayeon have this crazy great impact on her that will surely be the reason of her insanity and knowing better, following the address on the business card would be the dumbest decision a vampire can make.

The library isn’t a very usual type of a library. It looks more of a cozy home in Adorable Home, you’ll just know that it is a library because it is filled with books rather than IKEA furnitures. There is a large board written with “HANEUL COMMUNITY LIBRARY” above its doors, is that a bunny, raccoon and a shiba inu drawn at the edge of the board? Inside Nayeon’s library, there are mats and pillows where readers can lie down while reading. There are small coffee tables where visitors can write or put their laptops on or whatever activity that needs a table.

Jeongyeon stepped inside and was welcomed by the warm scent of books, coffee and Nayeon.

She went to the reception area. A shiba-inu looking girl with hamster-like cheeks, wearing a nameplate with “Sana” written on it, smiled at her.

“Good afternoon! Please sign here and before immersing yourself in the world of books, take off your shoes first.” Sana enthusiastically instructed her. She wrote her name in the log book and started to take off her shoes.

“You’re Jeongyeon?!” Sana squealed. “Nayeon’s upstairs!”

Jeongyeon was literally dragged by Sana upstairs. The second floor is still a part of the library below and there are some people reading there. Sana knocked at a door in the corner.

“Wait a minute.” Nayeon softly answer.

And, there was Nayeon, smelling sweet as ever, looking beautiful with her casual home clothes. Jeongyeon will lie if she said that her heart doesn’t skip a beat there.

Nayeon invited her to come inside her office. The overall aura of it is a school faculty room: there are stacks of paper in her desk, couple of bookshelves and framed certificates on the wall. There is one certificate that caught her eyes;

CERTIFICATE OF APPRECIATION

IS GIVEN TO

PROF. IM NAYEON Ph.D.

Nayeon nods at her shyly, “Associate Professor of Archeology and Art History at Seoul National University.”

“Wow, you’re too genius to read ‘Twilight!’” Jeongyeon chides.

“Why are you holding a grudge against Stephanie Meyer?”

“I’m not holding a grudge against the writer! I just hate how vampires are portrayed on books and movies.”

Nayeon eyes her new visitor with great curiosity. She cannot deny the fact that she finds Jeongyeon insanely beautiful, those alluring eyes that attracts her like a magnet, those jaws that can cut, that face that she keeps on dreaming of since the day that they met.

She was panicking inside now. She didn’t expect to see Jeongyeon now. She doesn’t expect to see Jeongyeon ever again at all. All her hope vanished days ago, thinking that there is no way a girl will accept an invitation from a complete stranger she met at a bookstore. Why the hell did I invite her at my library instead of getting her number?

“Ahmm, Nayeon? Are you still there? You’ve been spacing out.” Jeongyeon smiled sheepishly.

“I’m sorry, it’s kind of stuffy here. You want to go outside?”

Jeonyeon loves to clean. Back in her mansion, she dedicated a special room for her cleaning tools and equipment. One of those is an industrial vacuum cleaner that we often see at malls and supermarkets. It was her trusted friend when it comes to cleaning. No speck of dust is left to be seen when she and her friend join their forces. Now, if she can just use her super speed to pick her vacuum cleaner at her home, she will. She needs to vacuum all the crumbs Nayeon made.

There is no way she’ll enjoy the company of a messy person. She remembered how Tzuyu’s puppy eyes did not work on her when she saw left-over food on the table. She remembered how Jihyo’s voice were silenced by her nagging when she saw food crumbs on her couch. She remembered how she kicked Chaeyoung out of her mansion when she spotted a single drop stain of paint on her carpet. But she doesn’t understand why she find this messy-eating-bunny-human-girl adorable.

When Nayeon puts down her chopsticks inside the emptied cup of instant ramen, Jeongyeon automatically piles up their clean cups, she neatly folds the potato chips wrappers and stuffed them inside the cups. She proceeded to the trash bin near the convenience store’s entrance.

“You’re a clean-freak. You can’t stand messy people, huh?” Nayeon wondered as she went back at her seat.

“Yeah – I mean I love to clean.”

Nayeon chuckled and shook her head. “You will not be able to stand me; I admit I’m a little messy.”

“A liitle messy?” Jeongyeon feigned shock, “I saw your office earlier, is that what you call ‘a little messy?’ So what happens when you become a ‘big mess?’”

“You haven’t met my friend Hirai Momo, you’ll lose your mind!”

Silence follows, not an awkward one. It was very comfortable, too comfortable if you’ll ask Jeongyeon.

“You will not react to me being friends with Momo? THE HIRAI MOMO?” Nayeon bugged her eyes out, it pushed Jeongyeon’s inner alarm system button.

“Momo? Jeongyeon never wants to make fool of herself in front of someone she ~~loves~~ ~~likes~~ knows.

“Hirai Momo! The No.1 Dancer of Asia! The Dancer Extraordinaire! The most-followed dancer and vlogger on the world’s biggest video-sharing site, YouTube?” Nayeon bellowed. Other customers glared at them.

“I’m sorry. I’ve been living under a rock for a year.” Jeongyeon joked, trying to outsmart her way out of embarrassment, “so how did you met this Hirai Momo, no.1 Dancer of Asia, The Dancer Extraordinaire, and the most-followed dancer and vlogger on the world’s biggest video-sharing site, YouTube?”

“well, believe me or not, I used to be a trainee idol long long time ago.”

Our Jeongyeon may not be very updated with world’s current trends but she knows what “idols” are. From what she heard from Chaeyoung, idols are those famous entertainers who have trained for enduring years just to debut, have goddess-like visuals and an almost stick body figures because of their stringent weight requirements (and also they are not allowed to date freely).

“My parents don’t approve of me being a trainee but I really want it at that time, I trained with Momo back them. One time, she invited me to mountain hike. We found a fossilized pre-historic insect on our way. Our names are published on numerous journals after that. It awakens something inside me; my curiosity about the past. I quit being a trainee and entered college. My parents were so happy and tadah! I’m a professor now.”

“I see. You must have learned to love education very much that you built a library.”

“It was actually not only me. Together with Momo and Sana, we built that library for people to learn, relax or have the peace they can’t find on their own spaces.”

“You said it is open 24/7, how come?”

“It was Sana’s idea. She’s in the library most of the time because she has freer schedule than me and Momo. She observed that there are more readers at night, maybe because they have classes or work in the morning, but they have to go when the library closes. They can borrow the books but some books are big and heavy, that is so inconvenient for them. So Sana said, ‘why not open the library for 24 hours?’ and we decided that it is not necessary for the library to be manned all the time”

“Are you not afraid that some might steal your books if no one’s watching the library?”

“No, they can take books that they want for free. Most of the books are donated. There are also people who takes books but replaces it with different books, you know like a barter system.” Nayeon smiled. It was very special for her to be an instrument of this cycle of kindness. Everything in this world are priced, it was nice to see something for free every once in a while.

Silence follows, not an awkward one. It was very comfortable, too comfortable if you’ll ask Jeongyeon. She can just gaze at Nayeon smile, drown at Nayeon’s eyes forever and be the “Ultimate Perceiver” that George Berkeley talks about; someone who never blinks, someone who will ensure Nayeon will not fall into oblivion.

“Enough about me, I had shared to you almost my whole life but I don’t know a single thing about you aside from your name.” Nayeon chastised. 

As if a huge stone was lurched into Jeongyeon’s stomach, she doesn’t have an interesting AND normal thing about her. Her friends are amazing but she can’t just blurt out about them being like her, a vampire (aside from Dahyun). She is currently jobless because she doesn’t want to work for now, her bank account can sustain her needs for another ten to twenty years BUT she can’t share that! Either she will come out as a cocky bitch or a suspected Mafia boss.

She scanned the racks of foods displayed to be sold, finding an idea on what she’s going to tell to Nayeon. Her eyes landed on the stacks of bread in the aisle.

“I own a bakeshop.” Jeongyeon lied.

“Whoa! You bake? What’s your best-seller?”

Nayeon’s eyes were full of amazement and Jeongyeon felt proud for causing those eyes but then she remembered that it was because of her lies, her pride deflated.

“Oh… uhm… melon pan?” She answered looking down, she can’t look straight in the girl in front of her.

“You should let me try those! Momo and Sana always gives me melon pans from Japan and I can say that those are the best. Let’s see if your melon pan beat that.”

Jeongyeon loves to bake, it is not a lie. Back at early 2000’s, she was so bored to paint that she jumped at the idea of working in a bakery owned by an elderly couple right away without thinking twice. There, she is the responsible for organizing the breads, labelling them correctly and greeting the customers and attending to their needs. After her shift, the owners will teach her how to bake.

Baking appealed to her more than cooking meals. In baking, all you need is to be precise with your ingredients, measurements and temperature and you’re good to go. She can bake decent cookies and small breads but baking for a commercial establishment needs skills and talent, skills and talent she surely doesn’t have.

What makes Jeongyeon shaky at this moment are:

1\. She doesn’t have a bakeshop and Nayeon just texted her, reminding her about her wish to visit.  
2\. She tasted the melon pans Mina brought from Japan, how the hell she’s going to top that or even just to level with those?!

“Hyung, it is only 7 in the morning, why did you gather us here? Chaeyoung, with her both eyes still close and her head is on Mina’s shoulder, sleepily asked her. Mina, who is trying to prevent her girlfriend from falling face down on the table, glowered at her for interrupting their cuddle time.

She can see that Tzuyu is fighting the call of slumber by blinking two times faster. “Jeongyeon-unnie, what is this meeting all about?” Tzuyu yawned.

Jihyo is watching Jeongyeon. The way the older girl walks back and forth across the living room, she knows something big is bothering Jeongyeon. Since the day Jeongyeon moved out of their house to live in her newly-built mansion, she only visits them once in a while to help cleaning the house. She rarely sees her unnie acting like this; like there is a battle that she needs to lead into victory, being all fazed and nervous. Also, the time that the leadership of their family was passed unto her, Jeongyeon never called a single meeting ever again. This behaviors are sending warning signals in Jihyo’s head. Something’s wrong.

“I need to build a bakeshop as soon as possible!”

“WHAT?!”

She was sent back by a god-speed strong force. Her back met the bricked wall, pain spread from her spine to all of her back. All she can do was release a groan and the time that she opened her eyes, she saw Mina towering over her with. She glances back to the now-fully-awaken Chaeyoung, who were awaken by her girlfriend’s sudden outburst.

“You woke us up just for that?”

Mina was never a violent type of a vampire. Mina was already a vegetarian vampire when Jeongyeon met the her so she had never seen Mina being gory and bloody. She never has even heard her scream or even saw her scowl. Mina have a perfect calming and elegant picture in her mind.

“What the fuck! What was that for?!” Jeongyeon slowly stood up, scratching her back.

She doesn’t receive any answer, Mina gave her a deadly stare one last time and trudged upstairs. Chaeyoung blinked twice and clambered after Mina when she heard the older girl called her name.

“It was Mina-unnie and Chaeyoung’s cuddle time.” Jeongyeon shifted her gaze from Chaeyoung’s retreating figure to Tzuyu. A small yawn escaped from the maknae’s lips.

“Jeongyeon-unnie, it is our time to sleep. What was this ‘bakery’ you are babbling about?” Jihyo spoke clearly irritated with the suddenness of this early meeting.

“I need to build a bakeshop as soon as possible and it needs to have killer melon pans that can defeat the ones from Japan.” Her words spilled out of her mouth like she was rapping. She is desperate although she would not admit it, she sounded like her life depended on it.

“I love breads next to dogs… but why? Are you bored or something? I can’t see why this is an emergency.” Tzuyu blinked twice and look at her expectedly, wanting to hear some rational explanation.

She ought to be honest. Tzuyu and Jihyo, along with Chaeyoung, Mina and Dahyun, are her dearest friends so she doesn’t want to lie. The problem is, she doesn’t really know why. She doesn’t know why a certain girl makes her panic like this. She doesn’t understand why is she both ecstatic and nervous whenever they talk on the phone. She can’t fathom why Nayeon have a strong effect on her.

“Who’s the girl?” Jihyo asked.

“What?”

Jeongyeon was perflexed by Jihyo’s question. Unlike what were written in books or shown on movies, vampires don’t have mind-reading abilities, those were just bullcrap fantasy added to make vampires look more powerful and manipulative. Much eviler and scarier.

“You’re doing this to impress some random human girl that you met somewhere, right?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Stop denying it, Yoo Jeongyeon. I can see it all in your face.”

“Is this your first time falling in love?” Tzuyu queried. 

She can’t believe this. In love? No! It’s impossible in every way Jeongyeon turn. In hundreds of years of her existence, she never felt even a tug in her heart. Romance is just a thing so close to fiction for her.

Impossible.

Unimaginable.

Never in a million years that the idea of her falling in love crossed her mind.

But in the other hand, she dawdles back to her earlier trail of thoughts. Why is she really doing this? Jihyo was right, this early in the morning are vampire’s sleeping time so she should be lying in her queen-sized bed and snoring. BUT as we can see now, she’s here, in her co-vampire family’s mansion, having this impulsive meeting with Jihyo and Tzuyu (because Mina was very upset and Chaeyoung is obviously scared) about her plan of building a bakery as soon as possible.

This is very un-Jeongyeon. The arrival of certain Im Nayeon changed her drastically. She doesn’t know what is love but she’s sure she has seen one in the form of those who walked out earlier. She spent hundreds of years with Mina and Chaeyoung and she have witnessed how love blossomed between the two. Does Mina experienced unquenchable thirst also when her eyes first laid on Chaeyoung? Does Chaeyoung felt lively and high-spirited when she and Mina are talking? Are they also willing to do something really stupid for each other? Are their dreams full of every curve and lines of each other’s faces? Can they feel the ghost of each other’s warmth underneath their skin even hours after their last contact? 

Is this love?

Is she in love with Nayeon?

Jeongyeon loves her friends dearly. Vampires, in nature are solitary creatures. They were endowed (or cursed) with abilities that ensures their survival without help from other creatures. They have super strength that enables them to gather food for their own consumption and defend themselves against danger. In the early years of Jeongyeon’s life as a vampire this is what she blindly believes.

It all changed when she met little Jihyo.

Jihyo was only 8 years old at that time and was orphaned by an on-going war. She’s dying because of injuries Jeongyeon cannot imagine how or why a precious little girl should suffer from. Jeongyeon heard a quiet voice inside her heart saying save this little girl.

Jeongyeon converted her and took her under her wing. They’ve been doing well together as Jeongyeon passes down all of her knowledge in all aspect of being a vampire, from hunting to self-control, to Jihyo. Then they met Chaeyoung. 

Like Jihyo, Chaeyoung is dying too. The difference is Chaeyoung was bitten and sucked dry by another vampire and was left to die. There is only a hint of venom in her system and it was not enough to convert her. With Jihyo’s convincing, Jeongyeon injected more venom on her. The older vampires took care of the newborn vampire and taught her the ways and means of immortal creatures like them.

Years of peace passed by the trio until the clashes between different vampire clans intensifies around them. Although not part of any clan, Jeongyeon, Jihyo and Chaeyoung are frequently being involved on skirmishes so they figured out why not just leave Korea and start a new life at Japan (not knowing that the situation there is no different from where they are emigrating).

Being the new vampires in town, they had a lot of hard time fighting off vampires from various clans, who like the Korean vampires they evaded, was either trying to kill them because they view them as threats or trying to force them into submission on being slaves. On the day they made an attempt on getting out of Japan and escape to China, they met Mina.

Mina was the daughter of the leaders of Myoui clan, the oldest and strongest vampire clan in Japan (the clan that wants to make the trio their slaves). Knowing her roots, they did not trust Mina, except on Chaeyoung who seems to be fond of the elegant vampire, cooing at every move she makes, immediately. On their second attempt on escaping, dozens of Myoui vampires ambushed them, thanks to Mina, they managed to survive. Mina proved that she can be trusted and unlike her family, she wants a peaceful life. It turns out that Mina is secretly a vegetarian vampire because she can’t purposely hurt a human.

The four, now living a tranquil life in the coast of Taiwan and finessed a double identity of being amiable business people in the morning and blood-sucking immortals at night. Then they met teen Tzuyu. Jeongyeon wondered if she has a peculiar capability of attracting dying humans that needs to be saved because Tzuyu is dying too! There is a pandemic, the Spanish Flu, and Tzuyu is one of the unfortunates that contracted the virus. Her family left her with the fear of getting infected also. So, the vampires found her, coughing the life out of her, alone.

Being characters that are often main protagonists on children’s nightmares and adult’s folklore, the vampires are wary on making friends with humans (so Jeongyeon making just friends with Nayeon is really questionable) but they only have one exception: Kim Dahyun. Since they can’t die and they never grow old, vampires tend to get really bored with life so they do a lot of things to lessen this eternal boredom. Some do business empires (Jeongyeon and Mina), some travels around the world (Jihyo, she already visited all the countries in the world TWICE) and some attend school and finish college to the 20th time like what Chaeyoung and Tzuyu did.

On their first day of the semester, the professor assigned the class to have a three-manned group for the final project (what kind of a professor assigns project for the first day of classes?). The youngest vampires are anxious having a human groupmate, anything could wrong most especially on Tzuyu who is not confident with her self-control, being classmates with humans is different from spending longer time with a human within one-meter reach. They don’t move from their seats, wishing that number of students are not divisible by three. They sighed of relief when almost all of students appeared to have already settled down. Little did they know, there is this fair-skinned small girl walking towards them, wearing the biggest smile that causes her eyes to completely disappear.

That was how Dahyun came into their lives, the three became best friends. All is well between them yet the two still keeps their real identity to themselves, afraid of scaring Dahyun and losing her as their friend. It was until the day Chaeyoung forgot her bottle of “tomato juice” and it happened that Dahyun ran from the gates of their school to their locker room. Without asking for permission, she took a big gulp only to spit out the iron-tasting liquid that she often see Chaeyoung and Tzuyu are drinking.

Dahyun was introduced to the rest of the family, to Jeongyeon, Jihyo and Mina, when contrary to the expected human reaction that when you met real vampires, you should run away, scream at the top your lungs or shove crucifix into the beast’s faces, she lovingly embraced the two and thanked them for being honest to her.

So, again, Jeongyeon loves her friends that she treats as her family but what is she doing here? Sitting in her bakery (yes, Jihyo and the rest of the gang helped her build one and hire an authentic Japanese baker) and waiting for Nayeon when Sundays are usually their bonding time? Why did she lied that she was busy and doing something important vampire stuff when in reality, the professor planned something for her?

This is not the first time that they will meet up. Nayeon has been here in her bakery frequently for the professor always drops by after her classes in the university (citing her hunger as her excuse when we all know that schools have their own cafeterias and the bakeshop is almost 30 minutes away from SNU). Jeongyeon always walk the human girl home (her bakery is surprisingly only 10 minutes away from Nayeon’s residence) and sometimes they eat again at the convenience store near the library. They also have watched a movie once and promised each other that they’ll see another one next time they have free time. Late night calls and early morning text messages are not new to them. 

Both of them successfully fitted each other in their respective lives that brought another dilemma for Jeongyeon. She is a vampire and apparently she had been lying to Nayeon for months now. Her life story had been tweaked, twisted and bent to fit the narrative of her being a human orphan (a) whose parents died in a fire, (b) was put to an orphanage, moved from one foster family to another but was never adopted, and (c) the only truth, she met 5 amazing friends that she treats and treats her as family who helped her to have a happy fulfilling life.

She had been alone with her thoughts when someone tapped her shoulders, it was Nayeon. Nayeon was wearing a flowy floral dress that reaches an inch above her knees and Jeongyeon have to pick her jaws from the ground because the girl in front of her looks so ethereal and time stopped sticking when their gazes met.

It was a sunny day (vampires being afraid to the sun is only a misconception, it was only an invented characteristic of vampires by Bram Stoker, the writer of famous and immortal novel “Dracula”) and a great day to just amble around, hand in hand with the person you love. Jeongyeon looked at her hand clasped around Nayeon’s. She was glad that WebMD have a correct answer to her inquiries this time, she found Raynauld’s phenomenon – a condition where your body becomes so sensitive to cold temperatures so they decided to keep the heat away from body parts that doesn’t necessarily needs heat like hands and feet; she had an excuse to the professor that finally ended endless interrogation about her constant cold hands.

They continued to walk in complete silence, just enjoying each other’s company. Their destination was actually a café with an antique shop that was styled to look like a museum above it. It is not a surprise to Jeongyeon that Nayeon will take her here, knowing the latter’s profession and fascination to the past. The place was a time machine for Jeongyeon, the things around her brought her back to the time in past, maybe 20 or more years ago that felt only yesterday for her. The typewriters, old film cameras, aged turn-tables are nothing new to her, all of these things are once has been an ordinary sight to her house but she still listened to Nayeon who excitedly briefed her about its histories and fun little trivia. Her heart swelled seeing Nayeon being comfortable and thrilled and a history geek.

“Professor Im! Long time, no see!”

An old man with a balding hair, came up to them, limping and clutching a cane. Nayeon smiled at the owner of the shop. It turns out that Nayeon is a frequent visitor here. She sometimes buys stuff but most of the time she visits her to give the geriatric owner a detailed-backgrounder on his new items, in that way the man can price his items right and can answer his potential customers’ possible questions.

“Mr. Choi, how are you?”

The two fell into a conversation that most of it was Jeongyeon failed to catch on due to rapid exchange of history and archeology jargons, the only thing she understood is a mid-1800’s sewing machine from London arrived yesterday and Mr. Choi needs Nayeon’s professional advice if he should restore it or just leave at its slightly-damaged by rust condition. She stood there awkwardly, it was long before Mr. Choi finally acknowledges her presence. The old man gave Nayeon a meaningful look. Jeongyeon bowed as a greeting, somewhat uncomfortable with the man.

“So, who is this beautiful lady?” Mr. Choi asks Nayeon teasingly.

“Oh gosh, where is my manners?! Jeongyeon, this is Mr. Choi, owner of this haven shop. And, Mr. Choi, this is Jeongyeon, my- “Nayeon looked at Jeongyeon before continuing, “a special friend.” The two stared at each other, trying to find in each other’s eyes the deeper meaning behind those words.

Mr. Choi cleared his throat, grinning. “So, Professor Im, you were telling me last time about a Bronze Age and a Proto-Three Kingdoms Period daggers that will be exhibited in the SNU museum.”

“Ye-yeah, ahmm, at the end of the month, the university will finally put the national treasures on public display for five days. I hope you can come, Mr. Choi.”

They bid goodbye to the owner after they drank coffee on the café below. With Nayeon leading her, they proceeded on a nearby park. The sun is already setting, bursting orange and pink hue on the vastness of the skies. Thin cotton-like clouds are gently being carried of the wind above while the air below on earth are getting chillier as the start of autumn is already coming. Jeongyeon took Nayeon’s hand and put it into her pocket, offering warmth for both of them.

“Aren’t you going to invite me to your museum’s event?” Jeongyeon said quietly, giving in to the small jealousy she felt earlier when Nayeon forgot to invite her to an event that was evidently an important event for her that Jeongyeon wants to be a part of.

“Do you want to come? I’m afraid that I bored you to death earlier, bringing you the shop even if I don’t know if you are interested in this kind of things.”

“No! Of course not! I really enjoyed hearing you taking animatedly about the evolution of cameras and seeing you being a history geek!” She earned a smack on her shoulders, something that is not a rare occurrence whenever they are together.

“I’m not a geek!”

“Yes, you are!”

“No, I’m not!”

“There’s nothing wrong being a geek.”

“OK! Then I’m the hottest geek that exists!”

A burst of wheezy laughter comes from Jeongyeon, another smack on her shoulder and boisterous laughter comes from Nayeon.

“I want to be there, Nayeon. I also want to know what’s special about these daggers that made them national treasures. I promise, I’ll come.”

Stillness sprawled between them. It felt like everything stopped, the dancing of the leaves against the wind, the running and squealing of children playing even the sinking of the sun in the horizon, freezing everything. Nayeon squeezed Jeongyeon’s hand.

She was waiting for the right time. Actually, she consulted her friends and asked them on what would be the best romantic gesture that they think Jeongyeon will love. They planned fancy dinners and fun movie dates until Nayeon will be coward enough to cancel everything from the restaurant reservations to the balloons with words that say “I LIKE YOU.” She sometimes calls Momo at 3am because she thinks that she’s just assuming that Jeongyeon is also interested. She will tear a little and Momo will shout at her for disturbing her much-awaited limited rest.

But today, this very moment, everything is perfect. This must be the perfect time and she doesn’t want to listen to the small voices at the back of her mind. She took out both of their hands from the taller girl’s pocket and stepped in front of Jeongyeon. Jeongyeon looked beautiful today, not that she’s not naturally stunning everyday but the girl’s eyes are glinting different and her smile more carefree and wider.

“Jeong, I have something to tell you.”

“Ok… what is it?”

“I know that it’s only been months since we met and I don’t want to look like I’m rushing things with myself or my feelings but this something that I have already think about for a long time.” She took a deep breath and sighed, her hand is trembling in Jeongyeon’s hold.

“I like you. I like you a lot that I think that I might be,” she paused, trying to calm herself down before saying the next words that are too sacred to be violated, “I think I’m in love with you. I know it’s too fast but I can feel it my heart that it’s true. I’ve fallen in love with you.”

Nayeon stares at her, expecting a response, a positive one but she was rendered speechless by the sudden confession. She should be happy about this, right? From the day that they met, she has been pining at Nayeon. Her heart should have been leaping for joy now for the girl that she loves, loves her back, that it was not a one-sided love at all. But instead of butterflies in her stomach, she felt thorns piercing through her heart deeper and deeper and vines choking her throat tighter and tighter.

There is no future for us.

“Sorry, Nayeon.”

We will just end risking both of our hearts being broken. You will never be truly happy with me. I’m a monster. I need to consume other’s life just to live, there is a great possibility that I’ll hurt you, one way or another. You are too pure, too kind, too precious for someone like me, something like me. You deserve someone better. Someone that was not me.

She let go of Nayeon’s hand, it’s warmth and softness etched painfully on her palms. She’ll never forget how Nayeon brokenly looks, sadness brimming her beautiful eyes. Jeongyeon walked away without looking back, saying unspoken farewell that was too painful to hear. A goodbye that made no single sound but was greatly felt.

Nayeon loves Jeongyeon, she’s sure of it. At first, she thought it was just a simple crush or curiosity. Maybe she was just mesmerized by Jeongyeon’s beauty or she was just comfortable with the girl because of its unending kindness and humorless humor. It was more possible than completely falling in love with a person you just met months ago. But Great Sana once pointed out to her that in the span on their 3-hour calls (something they do to update each other when they are too busy to meet up face-to-face) there is only one word that goes out of her mouth: JEONGYEON. Jeongyeon bought me this. Jeongyeon took me there. Jeongyeon said this and that. Jeongyeon looks super cool wearing this. Jeongyeon blah blah blah.

She had liked a few women before but no one had an effect on her the same way Jeongyeon do. After thinking and reflecting on her mind and heart, she reached the conclusion that indeed, Jeongyeon is special and she would die if she will not act upon it and watched the other girl slipped away from her. She loves the girl and she is willing to take the risk.

Then she noticed something; the possibility of Jeongyeon liking her back. All those stolen glances that she caught, the caring words disguised as jokes or disgusts, the soft touches that go unnoticed, she felt it all. She’s not blind, she’s not numb and most of all she’s not dense. Her earlier doubts and fears were slightly extinguished by the hope given by those gestures. Now, she completely understands why hope was the only thing left inside the Pandora’s box. On why hope is also one of the evils inside the box, on why it was a false kind of hope, an empty one that makes the humanity prone to evil.

How wrong she was, if she just knew better, she would have kept it to herself. That would be a lot better than picking the shards of her broken heart until her hands bleed.

Nayeon flipped through the novel in her hand, it was “The God of Small Things” by Arundhati Roy (she’s trying to finish reading “Twilight” but she can’t pass opening the book without tearing up, memories of her first encounter with Jeongyeon flashes like a film behind her eyelids, so the book laid untouched in her bedside table).

That it really began in the days when the Love Laws were made. The laws that layed down who should be loved, and how. And how much. (Roy, 1999)

She minored at Sociology in her college and never had a grade lower than A-. That was 4-years in university and another 6-years at postgraduate studies, she attended thousands of seminars and conventions… but she never heard about those love laws before. Maybe that was what went wrong, maybe if she has known those laws, it won’t hurt this much. She would feel that Jeongyeon was way out of her league and she read all the sign wrong, that the girl was just being friendly. 

She should have never loved Jeongyeon. 

She should have never loved Jeongyeon this way.

This much.

Her bedroom opened slowly and her two best friends peeked their heads inside. She stopped trying to finish this depressing book as Sana and Momo jumped and snuggle at her sides. She understands why they are here and she is appreciative for that.

This is the first time for Sana and Momo to see their best friend looking this despondent. If Sana have known that that Jeongyeon will hurt Nayeon, she would have shooed that girl away the very second she showed up in the library. Nayeon is one of the most caring person she met, her unnie never deserves this. It hurts her to see her jolly and always-smiling friend wallowing in self-pity and broken heart. Never ever show to me your aggravating face Yoo Jeongyeon or you’ll taste my signature Osaka’s Honey Punch!

Their pile of cuddles was interrupted by the ringing of Momo’s phone. It was her Manager, calling because she has a scheduled dance practice. Without second thought, Momo declined the call.

“Hey, Mo. Go now, they needed you there.” Nayeon doesn’t want to burden anyone anymore, most of all Momo who she knows is preparing for her comeback.

“No, dance practice can wait for a while. You needed me here.” She hugged Nayeon harder indicating that, no, she’ll stay her until her unnie feels a lot better.

“I’m not as weak as you think, I’ll just sit here, contemplate about my life choices a little more then I’ll be running and working again! Don’t worry too much, this is just a heartbreak.” Yeah, just a heartbreak.

“We’ll help you through this, Nayeon-unnie, you are not alone.”

Sana suddenly straightened herself, surprising both Momo and Nayeon, “We should start making She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named regret for breaking your heart! What do you want us to break for you: her arms or her legs?” She playfully flexed her undeveloped biceps, she’s being adorable again that Nayeon can’t help but smile.

“No, this is enough. You, girls, being here is enough. Thank you.” She engulfed her friends into a warm embrace. She may be not 100% okay now but someday she will be. Someday.

“She’s not here,” with her eyes closed, Chaeyoung sniffed through the air. There is no sign of the older vampire.

“Are you sure? Maybe you have colds,” Dahyun’s eyes widens, she scrambled away from the vampire, “Coronavirus! Coronavirus!”

“Screw you! We are immune against those kind of flus that can kill fragile mortals like you!” Chaeyoung sniffed deeply again, making sure that Jeongyeon was not really inside the mansion. “And you are vaccinated already.”

Dahyun rolled her eyes and gawked at her friend, she really can’t believe that humans fear vampires when they actually look stupid doing vampire stuff.

“I know what you’re thinking you, idiot! I could wring your neck any moment that I want to, you know that.”

“Well, you’ve been threatening to kill me since the day I discovered you’re a vampire but I’m still alive until now.”

“You are welcome to go back home and write another gross romance book if you are keep on bugging me.” Chaeyoung spat.

She gained a kick in her shin from Dahyun, it doesn’t hurt her, she just laughed.

“YAH! IT WAS NOT ROMANCE! IT WAS MYS-TE-RY THRI-LLER!

“Mina said it was so romantic.” Chaeyoung responded while she climbs the mansion’s gate. She landed with a thump, she opens the gate from the inside and let Dahyun in also.

“Nah, she’s just to in love that’s why she can find romance everywhere she turns.”

As usual, the main door is unlocked. Dahyun went straight to Jeongyeon’s room and walked through the pathway that leads to the library. Chaeyoung’s right, Jeongyeon is not here.

Jeongyeon has been missing in action in their family “assembly” or we should say “weekly distribution of blood supply.” If Mina’s calculation was right, the older vampire’s supply should be thinning by now. She also missed their monthly sleepover on Dahyun’s place, something that she never done before.

Chaeyoung was rummaging around the freezer, she looked back Dahyun who is looking at her quizzically. She can’t contain her confusion, “Her blood bags are still enough to last another week, seems like she stopped drinking her supplies.”

“What do you mean? She starts biting people’s neck again?”

“No,” Chaeyoung paused, this can’t be happening for real, “She stopped feeding blood at all.”

The two stayed at mansion, waiting for Jeongyeon. They have called Jihyo to update the others about their findings. The three remaining friends are combing the streets looking for any sign on what Jeongyeon might be doing.

“What are you doing here? I should lock my doors next time.” Jeongyeon, looking paler than she ever had, was standing at the doorway.

“Jeongyeon-unnie! What happened to you?! We’re so worried!” Dahyun rushed at her to give her a bear hug that she weakly reciprocated.

“Just strolling around the city. I’m fine, I’ll rest now.” 

She walked past Dahyun but even before she was able to take a single step at the stairs, Chaeyoung appeared in front of her, scowling.

“What’s happening with you? You fell from the face of the Earth! We never heard a single thing from you! Your blood supply is untouched!”

“I’m just pre-occupied.” She’s so tired, she just wants to sleep but it is apparent to the younglings knows that somethings going on. Chaeyoung and Dahyun can be pushy when the situation requires.

Dahyun came up to them, holding a blood bag. Jeongyeon let the two lead her to her room. When the bag touched her lips and the blood started making contact with every taste buds her tongue has, she realized that, yeah, she has skipped eating for a week. The two let her finish her drink but she knows that they will not leave her unless she talks. What would she say? That she have been following Nayeon around? Not being a creepy stalker, she just wants to make sure that Nayeon is doing fine. That she want to know if the girl had stopped crying already? Is she going to tell them that she sent her rare first edition books to the community library because she knows that Nayeon will be happy with her donations? Or how she led a cute puppy at Nayeon when the girl was walking home from the university just to see her smile?

Tears started to pile up in her eyelids without her knowing. It hurts loving someone from afar even when you know that that person loves you too.

“Is this about her? The girl behind your untimely business venture?” Chaeyoung asked although it was quite obvious.

“We can’t be together, Chae. She loves me and I love her but we can’t be together.”

Chaeyoung sighed. “Are you afraid that she’ll be terrified of you?”

“It is natural for humans to be afraid of us, who will be insane enough to come close to us?”

“That’s bullshit, unnie! I’m a human too but I became your friend!” Dahyun protested, “Tell her and if she ran away from you then she doesn’t love you enough.” 

“You are different. That’s different, Dahyunie. You are forgetting that I lied to her, I manipulated her into liking me.”

“No! You did not manipulated her! You lied because you don’t want her to know that you are a vampire and I bet that everything you did for her are all true. You truly loved her.” Chaeyoung can’t believe she’s hearing this from Jeongyeon.

“But I can hurt her what if one day, I went crazy and lost control?”

“I’ve been with you for years and you never even sniffed me for once. And if you want to hurt her, you had many chances to do so but you never did.” It was pointless for Jeongyeon to be scared of with Nayeon because of her fear of hurting the girl that way.

“I’ll stay young and she’ll grow old and die someday. I can’t imagine how am I going to live without her.”

“What the fuck?! You are already living without her right now and you look like shit! If you let her go now, you will lose your chance of being with her. Would you rather spend maybe another 80 years or 90 years with her or not to spend a single day with her? It will be better for her to experience how to love and be loved by you than to not to know that you love her at all.”

Chaeyoung had enough of her unnecessary and pointless concerns. She starts dragging Jeongyeon out of the room.

“You are going to meet her NOW and you’ll tell her you love her!”

Moon is hiding behind the rain clouds; it was too dark outside except from small circles of light provided by some working street lights. Nayeon was trying to sleep when she heard a loud crash outside. Burglary is not a common crime in her neighborhood but not being common doesn’t mean it can’t happen. She grabbed the Taser she got from her father when she moved out of their family home that was hidden in her bedside table and slowly creeped downstairs.

There was another noise coming from the outside followed by murmurs, holy shimmerz, there are more than one burglar. She reached for her phone but alas, she forgot it upstairs! Where is your phone when you needed it the most? I should have never leave my room at the first place! Now I’m going to die.

“You will talk to her and you will tell her the truth!” A girl whisper-yelled.

“Chae! You stepped at my toes!” A different voice from the one earlier, pain is evident in her, “Yeah, unnie, just get this over!

“She might be asleep already! We can wait for tomorrow like what I was constantly telling you!”

“No, you’re just gonna bail out of this!”

“CHAEYOUNG!”

This is the voice that Nayeon can never forget, a voice she misses and thought that she will be hear again. Without thinking twice, she opened her door. Three girls whipped their head to her like three deer caught in the headlight: Jeongyeon and two smaller girls.

“Jeongyeon? what are you doing here?”

One of the smaller girls, the one that have cute eyes and beautiful mole steps forward “Hi, I’m Chaeyoung, Jeongyeon-unnie have something to tell you so Dahyun and I will be leaving now.”

“Kim Dahyun? The novelist?” Nayeon asked, starstrucked. Dahyun is one of the most promising writer of this day. Jeongyeon once told her about a friend of hers that writes for a living but she never told her that it was THE KIM DAHYUN.

Dahyun smiled widely and nods but Chaeyoung pulled her away before she can speak so just tried to wave goodbye (if wriggling her arms around can considered a “goodbye”). Their figures disappeared into the darkness of the night – seconds after a shriek, remarkably coming from Dahyun, was heard from a far. 

“Sorry about that, Nayeon.” Jeongyeon said shyly.

“Is what are you going to tell me that important for you to come here in the middle of the night?” Nayeon’s voice is tight due to the mixture of sleep-depravity and nervousness. Jeongyeon is too close for her heart, she needs to remind herself that this is the same person who broke her heart. She crossed her arms in front of her, hoping to create an invisible barrier that will protect her heart from getting broken further.

“Is that a Taser?” Jeongyeon was looking straight into her chest where the Taser unluckily was peaking between her closed hand. She tossed it back inside, targeting her couch but it went straight to the wall and into the floor.

“I thought someone was trying to break in.”

“Sorry if we scared you.”

Silence followed but unlike to the silences that they both enjoys before, this one contains too many words that both of them wants to articulate. This is heavy and suffocating.

“If you are not going to say something, I’m heading back in- “

“I wanted to say sorry.”

If Nayeon thought that her arms-barrier will work, she’s wrong.

“It’s not your fault that you can’t love me back,” her voice sounds so brittle, “people can’t choose who to fall in love with.”

Jeongyeon wrapped her arms around Nayeon. It was not that she doesn’t love the girl, she loves her. She loves her too much but she had hurt Nayeon and damage has been done. Nayeon started to weep on her shoulder, she can feel the tears seeping through her shirt. She let the girl cry until she hears sniffling. She pulled away and looked into Nayeon’s eyes.

“I love you,” she stopped as she let Nayeon searched into her eyes, “I love you as much as the deepness of the seas or the pinnacle of the mountains. I love you more than what my feeble heart can contain. I love you for all the days and nights and afternoons, every breaking of dawn and twilights. I love you even before you perceived that you loved me.

It was so poetic that if they are in a more normal time and position, they will have laughed their asses off. Jeongyeon would have hid her face and cringe to herself and Nayeon would have hit her a thousand times. But no, this was not their normal convenience store dates, Nayeon just heard Jeongyeon, the one she thought who never loved her more than friends. Jeongyeon confessed to her in the most Shakespearian way.

It doesn’t matter to her if she was crying and deeply hurt days ago. It doesn’t matter to her if Jeongyeon doesn’t utter a single word to her after her confession at the park. All it matters now is Jeongyeon loves her and she’s willing to give them a try.

“But, I lied to you.”

Nayeon pulled away from their hug. She saw guilt all over Jeongyeon. She can’t understand, it is too complicated for her genius mind. What lie? Why Jeongyeon have to lie? She hates liars the most. 

“I’m not a human. I drink blood for me to live. I’ve been living since centuries ago.”

“Stop joking around! Stop playing around with my feelings! If you don’t want me, don’t make up stories!” 

“This is the truth, Nayeon. I’m a vampire.”

Jeongyeon closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes, it was a complete different color. Red was never her eye color, Nayeon knew that and she knows how Jeongyeon contact lenses. Even she closed her eyes, Nayeon can see Jeongyeon’s dark brown orbs, there is no way that it was red. And it was never red earlier. Maybe it was the lights, yes, it was just the lighting.

Jeongyeon curled up her lips revealing two large fangs. Of course, Nayeon knew that it was never there before and there is no way you can suddenly grow fangs over just a period of seconds or even have that sharp and defined fangs at all.

“I know this is hard to believe in but what I was saying is true. Vampires are real and I’m one of them.”

She tried closing the distance between her and Nayeon but before she even took a step, Nayeon is already two steps away. She understands, the girl is disgusted of her now scared, she’s disgusted and scared of herself too. Nayeon hates her now and she deserves it. As least now, Chaeyoung and Dahyun will stopped bothering her now about the possibilities of being happy with Nayeon.

“I understand.” Slowly, Jeongyeon backs away. She promises that she’ll be as far as Nayeon wants her to be.

“Give me time to think, Jeong.” Nayeon retreated back inside and closed the door. She leaned against the wooden door, finding the strength that she lost a while ago. This is too much, she’s confused, hurt and thousands more emotions that she can’t find words to name it. At other side of the door, Jeongyeon continued standing there until the rains poured down, until it stops, until the dark sky turned purple and pink indicating the coming sun.

Vampires: From the Graves to Stoker to the Modern World of Art and Literature

Nayeon had read her students’s, Shin Ryujin, report title a couple of times now. She snickers at how universe is taunting her. She has been trying to forget about that fateful night, especially now that she’s in the middle of her class, but the world is reminding her that the girl she loves is a vampire in big bright angry letters.

Ryujin composed her posture and changed the first slide of her presentation, it shows pictures of the stereotypical vampires on movies: pale as dead, red-rimmed eyes with redder eyes, large fangs and gush of blood streaming down from the edge of their mouth.

No, Ms. Shin. Vampires doesn’t look like that. They have beautiful dark brown eyes and bright smile. They have nice smell nice too and perfect body figure. They have nice personalities. They’re perfect.

“Vampires had been part of the world’s myths and folktales as old as the Ancient Egyptians,” the next slide showed a bronze statue of Sekhmet, the ancient goddess of cats and who was considered the world’s first vampire and the hieroglyphs at the wall of tomb of Seti that retells the story of how the daughter of Ra, the Sun God, was filled with bloodlust and almost killed the whole civilization to quench it. “but, the current perception of vampires only came from the most famous novel that features them, ‘Dracula’ by Bram Stoker. Though, Stoker hadn’t seen his novel be successful before his death. Thanks to the plagiarism case that his wife won for him and the help of their family-friend, Hamilton Deane that wrote to be a play in Broadway, making Count Dracula the most famous vampire of all times.”

She shared the brief summary of the book and detailed how Stoker combined the old beliefs about vampires and his fictional ideas that gave birth to how vampires are being viewed today: garlic-allergic, sunlight-phobic, mirror-reflection-proofed creatures that sleep on coffins.

Oh, they went out on sunny days and Jeongyeon didn’t turned into dust so that them being weak of sunlight doesn’t count. She never seen Jeongyeon eat garlic though (but they never eat something with garlic when they are together so she can’t validate) and she’s not sure if Jeongyeon can be reflected on mirrors.

“But, vampires are not only believed to be blood-suckers but also harbinger of bad luck and unexplainable diseases,” Ryujin continued. The next slide shows a skull with a brick shoved into its mouth and two full skeletons with iron rods through their chests, “Medieval people believed that vampires are the dead that rose from their graves to torment the living so it is believed that putting bricks into their mouth will prevent them from eating their shrouds, a piece of cloth that was being put on the corpse’s face and was believed that vampires eat their shrouds, and piercing the body into their coffin will prevent them from coming out of their graves. The first one, the skull of a woman, is the so-called ‘Venetian Vampire’ was found in the mass grave in Lazzaretto Nuovo, Venice. There was a plague in Venice in 1576 and vampires are blamed of spreading it. However, the skeletons are just the two out of around 200 excavated ‘vampires’ in Sozopol, Bulgaria last 2013.” 

Yes, Nayeon was very familiar with the two excavated remains of “vampires” it was groundbreaking for the archeology community that time. For years, archeologists found numerous texts that discusses practices that are done to corpses to prevent them from coming back as vampires but they lack evidence that those procedures are really put into practice until they excavated the woman in Venice and men in Bulgaria.

The student discussed how the lack of post-mortem knowledge, (people believed that corpses came out of their graves to feed on the living when they exhumed some bodies having big abdomens and dark liquid oozing from their mouth when actually decaying organs creates gases that makes the body especially the stomach bloat and pushes out dark liquids out of the mouth) and the fear of the unknown, the blamed vampires for the misfortunes they had faces and resulted to the “vampire scare” from 18th to 19th century. Aside from scouting the graves for possible vampires, they also went out of the streets with forks, stakes and hatchets persecuting people who they thought are vampires.

Are you already a vampire that time, Jeongyeon? Or are you still human? Do you become human at all or are you born a vampire? Did they run after you? Threatening to stake your heart or burn you alive? Did you successfully blend to the crowd or you hid in forest or cave? Or you kill those who want to kill you? I have thousands of questions to you, Jeongyeon, but this doesn’t change that I love you.

Nayeon wakes herself up from her own reverie because it was unfair for her student that her professor is not listening to her well-prepared research. Ryujin showed a picture of a small box excavated in Transylvania back in 1920 that contained a silver rosary, dried cloves of garlic and a prayer book that specifically prays for God to deliver them from blood-sucking monsters.

Her student mentioned “Carmilla,” the novel published more than a decade “Dracula” that used vampires as metaphor of how monstrous homosexuality can be which added vileness of the creature. Ryujin added that though, vampires are always deemed to be a fiend, modern literature says otherwise. She started on jotting down how well-receives the “Twilight” series are and how it changed people’s perception from a vile manipulative Dracula to smoking hot and dazzling Edward Cullen. 

Is that why Twilight infuriated you, Jeongyeon? Because you know how vampires are really like? That vampires don’t sparkle under the sun? You must have hated Dracula more. Jeongyeon, I need you explain tol me what vampires really are. I want to know the real you. And, to love the real you.

Shin Ryujin bowed after she concluded her report, stating that myths and folktales people more than just scaring children to go to bed early. These superstitions urge them to have believable nightmares, making them real. Out of this, people also create art and literature that constantly change over time until the fear dissipated, leaving only more opportunities for future artists to more harmless versions of monsters that torture the past generations. She waits for her professor to ask questions regarding her report. She likes Prof. Im for her unconventional way of teaching so impressing her is very important. Prof. Im is staring at her last slide making her nervous.

Nayeon felt so unprofessional when she noticed Ryujin fidgeting her fingers around the cue card in her hand. It is obvious that Ms. Shin is waiting for her question or affirmation but she can’t think straight since throughout her student’s report she goes back and forth from Jeongyeon and their current situation. 

“Vlad, the Impaler, you know him for sure. How does his ‘legend’ and possible link to Dracula contributes to the fear of vampires?” Nayeon asks, thanking her fast thinking skills.

“Well, Professor, I assume that Vlad, being a real person and historical figure, makes vampire more real. Like people can now have the face of what or who they fear. Legend says that Vlad, the Impaler, dips his bread in blood of his victims is something very ‘vampirey.’”

“What about the late 1960’s vampire scare in Manchester? And the case of Mercy Brown? What do you think about those? Aren’t those more real? Unlike the legends?”

“Professor, the vampire scare in London was started by an occultist, Sean Manchester of British Occult Society. The Highgate Vampire was sensationalized by the media that time because of rivalry of who’s going to exorcise the vampire that causes people to see strange things in Highgate Cemetery. On the other hand, Mercy Brown is like the Venetian Vampire. She was just mistaken as a vampire because of her well-preserved body after months of death.”

Nayeon nods in satisfaction, both with her student and herself. “Thank you, Ms. Shin. You may now take your seat.” After her class, on her way to the faculty room, she remembered that she has a museum exhibition to attend to. She sighed of exhaustion but at least there is something that will take Jeongyeon and vampires out of her mind for a while.

She knows that she asked time from Jeongyeon so she doesn’t understand herself why she is feeling upset that Jeongyeon broke her promise of going to the event. She wants to take her mind off the vampire but the very moment that her eyes laid at the dagger artifacts their conversation at the park. Mr. Choi also didn’t make it to the event because of health reason, might be his arthritis again. The crowd was bustling earlier at the opening of the university museum. All was excited to see the famous daggers that was only displayed at the public this year after being named as one of the countries “national treasures.”

Standing in front of everyone, passing her eyes at everyone, wishing to see the face of the one she really wants to see, she took a deep breath. This is not the first time to speak in front of many people but she’s nervous for an unknown reason. 

“This 66.7 cm stone dagger is the largest stone dagger to be excavated in the whole Korean peninsula. Stone daggers, in general, are found in both dwelling sites and burial sites and seemed to have different functions and this marvelous stone dagger in front of you is found in Jinra-ri, Cheongdo, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province and served as a grave good demonstrating that the owner of this have high authority and status in the society. What is more amazing with this dagger is, up until now, its long blade remains quite sharp – yes, it can still kill people.” The crown roared in laughter.

“Aside from the breathtaking stone dagger we just saw, we also have in our unworthy presence the Proto-Three Kingdoms Period Korea-type bronze dagger. This is excavated from a wooden coffin burial at a stone-mound tomb site in Namseong-ri, Asan, Chungcheongnam-do Province. Like the owner of the stone dagger, the owner of this dagger is a powerful member of the community as their tomb contained other numerous bronze objects with high quality. This dagger has sharp edges and so-called ‘blood grooves’ indicating that this was used as a practical weapon – yes, it was used to kill people.”

The audience are laughing while she stepped down the podium. If Jeongyeon was here, would she laugh?

How she wished that Jeongyeon saw her being a history geek. How she wished she was getting teased about it. How she wished to see Jeongyeon’s stupid grin again.

It’s been an hour or so after the museum closes. Nayeon stayed in her office, not really wanting to go home. The security guards already knocked the door of her office, asking if she was okay for the university is closing soon. She tried to fixed herself but ended up staring on the compact mirror longer than it should and deciding that it doesn’t matter if she goes home appearing like a ghoul. As she walks out of her office, locking the doors, she had a resolution that this needs to end. She clearly wants Jeongyeon around her and she doesn’t care if she needs to drink blood every now and then. They need to talk. 

On her way out, she passed by the back of the museum again. The backdoor, the same door that only faculty members can use, is opened. She’s the last one from the faculty that left the museum so out of the goodness of her heart she already locked the door. But it was open, thinking that she just didn’t locked the door properly, she proceeds to the door to close it again. She’s very disappointed with the security of the university; she notes to herself to write a letter to the admin tomorrow. To her surprise, the doorknob was broken like someone smashed it open.

Burglary.

This time she was sure of it, unlike the time Jeongyeon “crashed” at her front door. She peeked her head inside, cautious that the burglars might see her. This time, she made sure to reach for her phone. What she saw boiled her blood, it enraged her! She forgot about the phone in her hand, she forgot that she should have alerted the security personnels. She stormed inside, surprising the culprit that was skulking out.

“Why the fuck are you holding the artifacts with your bare hands?! You’re contaminating it with your body oils!”

The culprit almost dropped the daggers at his feet. The two national treasures are in his bare hands; a pair of obviously ruined nylon gloves is messily tucked in his waist. He wears a balaclava, hindering Nayeon of recognizing him, but something in his posture and built screams you know me.

“Put that down! I already called the security!” Nayeon bluffed. Looking at the man and the daggers, she remembered her own joke, yes, those daggers was used to kill and can still be used to kill her that very night. She doesn’t know any self-defense and her running skills is not good either, she’ll end up in the hospital’s A&E department, if she were lucky enough not to die.

“Just stepped aside and let me go!” The man growled at her. His voice, Nayeon can’t be wrong! She knows who this voice came from. It’s depth and texture is something she always hear every Sunday. Its tone is always combined with the hazelnut latte she frequently orders when she was talking to him. His voice always harmonizes with Mahler and Chopin playing softly in the foyer of his shop.

“Mr. Choi?!” 

She’s 100% sure that it was Mr. Choi but she can’t understand either. Mr. Choi should be in his bed because of his knees was burning in pain. He is a friend and a respectable man, why the hell is he trying to steal artifacts?

“Professor Im, for our friendship sake,” his voice is guttural and threathening, contrary to his words, Nayeon knows that the man doesn’t see her as a friend but as an obstacle to his plan. He irritated. His plan is simple: cut the cctv wires, smash the backdoor open with a metal pipe (that sadly torn open his gloves) and get the artifacts then go. Nayeon should not be here, no one should be here and most of all, he should not be recognized.

He had been doing these for years: posing as a harmless old man with an antique shop but actually an illegal seller of treasured artifacts and art pieces on the black market. He truly enjoyed being friends with Nayeon for she (a) is nice to him and (b) she is useful on explaining things that he can use to sweet-talking his way to higher prices at trade. He is sorry to Nayeon, she is young and intelligent, but she knows too much. Mr. Choi, contrasting to the Nayeon’s imagined way of death, he placed down the daggers and gripped the metal pipe.

Nayeon tried to make an escape to the door behind her but Mr. Choi was able to grab her. He shoved her down and she hit her head hard on the marbled floor. Everything around her spin, she can’t make out where Mr. Choi is now as her vision dimmed and as if jack hammer was drilling through her skull, it felt like her head was being cracked open. 

This will be the end of her, it was a waste she was not able to watch Momo’s comeback nor meet Sana’s new dog. She closed her eyes and she saw Jeongyeon, her face and her smile. She’s sorry for acknowledging her earlier – they could have their best time together even if it was for only a short time. She was waiting for another blow or maybe a stab to come but it never come.

Jeongyeon always keeps her promises. That is why she’s here in SNU but hiding her presence from the girl who invited her here at the first place. Nayeon asked for more time from her to think things through as she is more than willing to give it as long as Nayeon needed to.

Hiding through the crowd is not that difficult. She sat at the seat farthest from the stage where Nayeon was standing giving her remarks. Who would have thought that this girl, who exudes big brain energy, cries when Iron Man died, take note: they have seen Endgame three times already. Only her knows that side of Nayeon.

People are starting to leave when they realized it was too boring staring at two daggers (there are also other artifacts being exhibited but the daggers are the star of the night so that was what they deemed as important). It will be harder for her to hide when the people thinned completely. She had one last look on Nayeon, who is still busy entertaining anyone who showed interest on the box. Jeongyeon decided to go home, she doesn’t want to push her luck and destroy’s Nayeon trust once again.

She was about to leave when, she felt something was going wrong. Vampires don’t have premonition or telepathic abilities but something was preventing her from leaving the university. Nothings gonna go wrong, maybe, if she’ll stay for a while, right? She’ll just for Nayeon outside, hide behind trees or something, and watched Nayeon go home safely.

And it all happen in a swift, a scream rang inside in her ear. She ran as fast as she could to the source of the commotion. Everything went red. All the control she had vanished into thin air. Her mind went blur as she saw Nayeon lying motionless and a man was about to strike a pipe against her. Her own blood rushed into her own stream and someone is dying tonight.

Not Nayeon.

Definitely not her.

This man will be a cold corpse before the sunrises.

The metal clang against the marbled floor and rolled near her feet. Nayeon can’t comprehend what happened. Nausea and her desire to vomit all the contents of her stomach is clouding her mind. Glasses shattered meters away from her. She can hear howling of a man, groaning and choking. She can sense that it was happening inside the same room that she was in but it feels like it was far far far away from her. With all her strength, she tried to opened her eyes. She saw a hazy figure of a man being strangled against the wall, his feet are more than a foot above the floor. His legs are thrashing violently trying to find a landing but he was being elevated more and more; his struggling breathing filled the room. It was Mr. Choi.

Mr. Choi tried to scream, for Jeongyeon to stop and to call for help but the vampire clenched her fist tighter around his neck. Jeongyeon’s eyes turned bloody red and her fangs are pointy sharp. She buried her nails at the sallow skin of Mr. Choi’s neck, tiny droplets of blood tickle down his shoulder. The man kept gasping for air, his small hands grasping Jeongyeon’s, begging for his life. He is turning blue.

A soft and warm hand touched Jeongyeon’s bawled hand. Nayeon is standing unsteadily beside her. 

“No, Jeongie.” Nayeon said softly.

Nayeon never let go of her hand, soothing her. All of her anger was flushed away. Nayeon brought her back to sanity. She freed Mr. Choi from her clutches. The man fell on his knees, wheezing. He scrambled away but the shards of broken glasses slashed his skin and bleed. His blood enticed Jeongyeon. Nayeon gripped her hand stiffly, giving her enough self-control not to suck dry Mr. Choi’s blood.

The security finally discerned the burglary and came in to assess the situation. They arrived in with a man bleeding on the floor and two girls having their moment in the middle of the mess.

“Very good, Jeongie.”

“Nayeon!”

She fell limply on Jeongyeon’s arms as she let dizziness took her to darkness.

It’s been three days after the incident and Nayeon has been discharged yesterday from the hospital. To her dismay, Jeongyeon was not there when she woke up. A puffed-eye Sana and disguised Momo was what she first sees after being unconscious for almost three hours. Her surroundings and even her thinking is murky at that time, she’s calling for Jeongyeon but Sana urge her to sleep more. She’s been woken up every hour after that but in every waking, Jeongyeon is nowhere near her.

She was briefed by what really happened that day. So, Mr. Choi is one of the illicit antique and artifacts trader in the black market. The daggers, after being named national treasures, became the most-sought after items of art hoarders. Its price is roof-high and Mr. Choi can’t pass those kind of opportunities. After knowing that the university is pretty lax and, Nayeon herself, unknowingly helped him by giving him information about the daggers and the school, he successfully infiltrated the school. Thankfully, he was caught off-guard.

In the police custody, Mr. Choi insisted that a girl came in like a flash of lightning. The said girl threw him as if he was just a piece of paper, shattering the protective glass case and proceeded to strangle him. He was so sure that the girl was trying to kill him and is not a human at all. He keeps on protesting that the girl should also be arrested for attempted murder and is a danger to humanity.

Of course, the police never believed him since he has no proof nor a single cctv footage. Gladly.

The official statement from the police states that Mr. Choi tried to steal the artifacts, breaking the glass in the process. Nayeon caught him so he attacked her luckily, a friend of the professor was there and managed to subdue him.

The university released an apology for the alarm and scandal that they caused (it is not every day that a prominent university was broken in and a professor almost die protecting two daggers). They fire people who are responsible and heightened the security of the university. Despite of their efforts to save their reputation, the National Museum of Korea decided to halt all archeology exhibition and research of the school and transfer all of the artifacts, including the daggers, and art pieces from SNU to their custody.

She was forced by Sana to stay in her bed, no other unnecessary movement and activity allowed. Still no news from Jeongyeon. What if she realized that dating a human will be headache for her? Because of what happened her identity is almost revealed, so it was understandable.

The morning is despairing and dull. Lying in her bed and thinking about how Jeongyeon probably hates her now is not the best way to recuperate.

“Sana!”

Maybe her friend can accompany her while she wallows into another wave of sadness. Sana decided to close the library for some days to take care of her and to stop people packing around the library since after the news broke out about a hero professor who stopped a heist, villagers are wishing to see a glimpse of her. 

“Sana!”

She faced to her side, her back towards the door. It’s always this way even back when they were younger and are still in high school. She’ll ready her back for the Japanese to cuddle to. When Momo was with them, it will be Momo-Sana-Nayeon cuddle fest. Sadly, but happily, today is Momo’s comeback is today and she’s in Inkigayo this moment. So it will only be Big Spoon and Baby Nayeon day.

“Sana?”

Nayeon turned to face Sana with the babiest pout she can master. Instead of Sana, tall, blonde and gorgeous Jeongyeon was standing there, smiling at her. Oh god, I miss you!

“Jeongyeonie”

Jeongyeon smiled even brighter and waddle towards her. She hesitated if she’ll sat by Nayeon’s side so she just stood there awkwardly.

“Where’s Sana?” The last she remembered Sana wants to break Jeongyeon’s legs and won’t let the girl be a meter near her. She’s afraid that her friend did something or said something to Jeongyeon downstairs.

“She’s with Dahyun, having tea. She’s was about the tear my head off when she saw me. Luckily, she’s a big fan of Dahyun, she calmed down and let me in.” Jeongyeon giggled.

“No, she’s not a fan of Dahyun!”

“She turned beet red when she saw Dahyun and she turned even redder when my friend shook he hand so I thought she’s a fan.”

“Mystery thriller is not her thing. Romcom is her genre.”

Hmmm, Sana got a crush! Let’s wait for Momo to come here! Hahaha

They stayed there in silence. Nayeon reached for Jeongyeon’s hand. It was cold but very comforting for Nayeon. She’ll never let go of this hand ever again. She patted the space beside her, indicating Jeongyeon to sit beside her.

“How are you feeling?” Jeongyeon asked worriedly.

When she left Nayeon in the hospital, the girl was unconscious due to concussion. She blames herself for coming too late, if she was a little faster, Nayeon would not be hurt. She remembered how she lost control and almost killed a human in front of Nayeon. She’s a beast and Nayeon doesn’t deserve her.

“I’m fine. Thank you for saving me.”

She looked at Jeongyeon the same way she looked at the vampire the day she confessed on the park. It was the same look she gave the taller girl in museum that night. Her eyes spoke thousand words that her lips failed to say. She still love Jeongyeon and she loved her even more after seeing who the girl who really is and witnessing Jeongyeon’s fears and weaknesses.

“Didn’t I say that I love you before?” She asked.

“Yes, what about now?”

“If only you repeat the confession you made. What was it? You love me deep as the seas?” She teases.

Jeongyeon blushed and pushed her away. How can people be scared with someone as cute as Jeongyeon.

“I love you even after you told me the truth, I never stopped loving you.”

Jeongyeon teared up. She’s the luckiest to be loved by someone perfect like Nayeon. She wrapped her arms around Nayeon, letting the girl know that she loves her too, the same intensity that Nayeon loves her. She let the warmth, if she can give off any, to remind Nayeon that they are fitting puzzles in this world. Without her, there is no meaning in Jeongyeon’s existence. 

“I love you since the moment that I smelled you.”

“WHAT?!” Nayeon pulled away and see Jeongyeon grinning at her, maybe it was only vampires inside joke.

“I kinda smelled you at the bookstore, that was not intentional, I swear. You just have this irresistible smell for me then being with you, you proved to me that I’m attracted not only by your smell but with your whole being.” Jeongyeon falters, trying not to creep Nayeon out.

“So you think I’m irresitable?” Jeongyeon’s heartbeat soared realizing the meaning behind Nayeon’s words. The distance between is microscopic, she felt Nayeon’s hot breath against her flushed cheeks. She turned her head and saw Nayeon looking at her deeply and her mouth is slightly opened, lips looked so tempting. She allowed her eyes to linger a little longer at Nayeon’s luscious lips.

As Jeongyeon inched closer, Nayeon’s breath ragged when their lips touched, she can feel millions of fireworks erupting inside her stomach and butterflies fluttering inside her chest wanting to break free. As their lips danced with each other, all the thoughts that were buzzing their heads are silenced and all they want to have is more.

They pulled away to catch their breath but came back, diving for more of each other tastes. It filled all of their senses that they did not know how their hands went from holding each other to caressing every possible skin that their clothes are not covering. It wasn’t all sexual, it was more of them making sure that the other was still there and weren’t just a dream or a figment of their wild imaginations.

Nayeon pulled away, beaming. Jeongyeon planted a gentle kiss against her lips one more time and omce in her forehead. It was sweet, love overflowing between them. They remained in each other’s arms as they enjoy their post-kiss bliss. Jeongyeon’s eyes perched to the copy of “Twilight” in Nayeon’s bedside table.

“Still trying to read that horrible book?”

“No,” Nayeon grabbed the book and tossed it away, thumping to the carpet.

“Our story is better, way much better because we’re real.”

**Author's Note:**

> Nayeon's library is inspired by the library I visited and the student centre near my university. The library is very much like Nayeon's, open 24/7, open for all kinds of human beings and you can take any book you want from them. The student centre is the most relaxing student hangout place you can find, you can sleep, you can play games etc.
> 
> Comments? Suggestions? Tweet at me @nachaengseuki
> 
> Thank you for reading!


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